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Unknown Works, an award-winning London-based design studio.

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By Emily Martin

Who

Unknown Works are directors Theo Games Petrohilos, Ben Hayes and Kaowen Ho. They met as students while studying architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. They are best friends, recalling living, travelling, working and studying together. You can see the practice’s new permanent exhibition work – Energy Revolution Gallery – at the Science Museum in London, and The Architecture Window at the Royal Academy, a framework for displaying young voices in architecture.

The company has also opened the Armadillo: a pioneering timber arts pavilion, first at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, for LFA 24, and then at its permanent home in the woods at Houghton Hall, for Houghton Music & Arts Festival, last August. They say: ‘We are architects. We design buildings, spaces and things. Our work is purposely varied, from residential to cultural and commercial projects at all scales.

We enjoy the cross pollination of ideas and applying architectural thinking to fields beyond architecture.’ Since working full-time at their practice in 2018, they have won several awards, including the Lux Award for Best Architecture Design & Research Studio 2023 – London, and the RIBA Scott Brownrigg Award for Sustainable Development in 2022, for ‘Co-Designing the Rwanda Model Village’.

Why

The trio set up their studio simply from being ‘curious about most things’. Using their design approach, the friends wanted to freely ‘explore different worlds at the same time. We set out to be excited as designers and to make good projects.’ Before setting up their joint practice, each worked at both large and small practices, undertaking projects covering commercial, cultural, infrastructure and institutional spaces to research and education.

They say: ‘We bring this wide and varied experience to our practice in as much as we are interested in everything. We are incredibly ambitious and want to work on projects that can have more impact. We want to keep on delivering a varied portfolio of work – from homes, offices and commercial projects to off-grid community infrastructure – in the developing world, theatres and small pieces of furniture. Our biggest ambition is to build more spaces for the public, particularly in the cultural space.’

Where
www.unknown.works

 

The Armadillo:

Image Credit: TESHAN SELVA

The Armadillo is a pioneering timber arts pavilion, a collaboration effort, which opened on 1 June at Trinity Buoy Wharf in celebration of the 2024 London Festival of Architecture. Responding to the 2024 theme ‘Reimagine’, the Armadillo extends the opportunities of experimental cross-laminated timber (CLT) architecture to push forward a natural, spatial sound experience.

Energy Revolution Gallery – Science Museum:

Image Credit: STÅLE ERIKSEN

The gallery examines the energy transition and decarbonisation needed globally to limit climate change. Designed with circular principles to echo the decarbonisation focus, Unknown Works used recycled and repurposed shelving systems and other low-CO2 construction methods, while whole-life CO2 assessment cut the design-stage footprint estimate from 113t to 53t.

Scotts TKL:

The 33m2 fish and chip restaurant sits within Taikoo Li, an upmarket shopping district in Chengdu city, China. With the interior being so limited for dine-in guests and the exterior envelope being such a visible marker of the site, it was obvious that the facade should play the key role in the project, forming both an active space for restaurant-goers as well as the conceptual framework for the entire restaurant.